The Ghost King
by GBrowland
Summary: Nico di Angelo is sent onto an undercover mission to Hogwarts to defeat a group allied to the titan lord. No pairings, R&R, all that stuff.
1. The Beginning

'Why the hell did I do this?', was the only thought seared into Nico di Angelo's adolescent mind as he stepped into King's Cross Station. The bustling crowd of people bumped and jostled Nico, and he had a weird feeling that all the air in the place was getting sucked up by passersby before Nico could get a breath. The place smelled of marble, desperation, and sweat. Though not in the slightest claustrophobic, Nico felt boxed in, crushed, by the rushing crowd, which moved like a wave in the midst of an oceanic storm. Nico had a vague thought of the ocean, of bodies of water, of water itself, and finally of camp. Camp, admittedly, was not on Nico's top list of places. No, in fact, it was behind the Triple G Ranch on his list of places to be (though, the Ranch had pretty good barbecue), though Nico could not act like he wasn't a bit homesick.

Homesick. The word sounded foreign in his head, and Nico rolled the word off of his tongue and was surprised how strange it felt in his mouth. To a son of Hades, home is a fleeting sort of thing; always going, never staying, quite like the past Nico remembered. Nico and Bianca had never stayed in a single place for too long. Besides the Lotus Hotel and Casino, of course, Nico thought with an abrupt chill.

Nico checked his surroundings. The crowd had nearly passed, though more trains were pulling in. He figured he'd better hurry up, lest he get swallowed up by the coming storm of people.  
>Nico, curious as always, pulled a small piece of papyrus from his pocket. On the paper was his destination printed neatly by a skeletal scribe's unfailing hand. Platform 9 and... what is that? Three quarters?<br>Wary of a trick, the young raven-haired boy checked the station for any possible Hephaestus TV cameras, though he hadn't much luck for finding one anyhow. Hephaestus had a certain.. knack for keeping his accessories well-hidden, out of the way.

"Lovely", Nico muttered to himself bitterly. If he asked somebody for his destination, he'd be thought mad, but if he searched the station for it, it'd probably depart before he even found it. Nico pinched the bridge of his nose as he walked forward. Platform 7... Platform 8... Platform 9...

The son of Hades stopped abruptly. He found a platform 9, and a 10, though no 'three quarters'. A busty old redhead and what appeared to be her family marched solemnly through the station, obviously not quite caring what wandering eyes found them. The eldest child looked at Nico and raised an eyebrow, and Nico looked away, realizing he was losing precious time by staring.

Though, the son of Hades thought, it was better than staring idly at a brick wall!

The family, previously marching like ducklings behind their mother, stopped at Nico's right, and Nico glanced at them, ready for a lecture of how "staring is impolite." He'd heard it all from Persephone and had no desire to hear it again.

The redheaded family's presumed leader, the mother duck, stepped forward and squinted. "Well boys, we're here!"  
>Four kids, a girl and three boys, stepped forward easily, as if prepared to do... whatever it was they sought to do. The children exchanged a tearful goodbye to their family, and... ran straight for the brick wall inbetween Platforms 9 and 10?<p>

Shocked out of his wits, he didn't realize the mother duck of the redheads piping up towards Nico.

"Hello, young man!" The woman looked at Nico inquisitively. "Are you to headed for Hogwarts?"

Despite himself, Nico had to bite back a laugh. Hogwarts?

"Er, yes, I think", the teenager said. The woman beamed. "Well, I suppose you'd better be off, then! Just take off running towards that wall and you'll be there!"

"...wait," came the response. "Running towards a wall? Is this shadow travel?"

The woman raised her gaze from her children's departure to Nico, and asked, "Shadow travel? I'm afraid, young man, that I do not follow." Nico, despite himself, was in a mood to show off. "Oh, so this one?" He motioned to the brick wall inbetween Platforms 8 and 9 and got into a running stance.

Before the mother duck could stop him, Nico took off running towards the incorrect wall. "Wait!" He could vaguely hear the warnings of the elderly woman from behind him.

Before he could be crunched into a block of teenage boy, Nico pictured what he imagined his mysterious destination to be.

Without a splat, the boy vanished, leaving a confused redheaded couple in its wake.

Nico welcomed the shadows like a blanket around himself as he traveled through structures, namely the brick wall, to reach his aforementioned destination. As the process began to slow, Nico braced himself to land.

As suddenly as Nico had disappeared from the station, he found himself in the compartment of several kids his age, including two of the redheaded duck brood's members. "What in the!" The male redhead shielded his head as he cowered couragously underneath the compartment table.

The others, however were not so quick to respond. Odd crew, Nico thought as he scanned the compartment with his eyes. A boy with what appeared to be a lightning bolt scar as he turned towards him in astonishment, the ducklings, a bushy-haired brunette, who was so caught up in her conversation with a blond-haired girl that she didn't notice for a few moments.

He dusted himself off, to what was now a complete assortment of shocked eyes, bar the blond, who was staring at Nico with an odd look on her face.

For several moments, Nico simply stared from person to person until they were forced to look away, but for scar-boy and bushy-hair. As the bespectacled boy with the scar gathered his wits, he grabbed a slender brown stick from his... robes? "Explain yourself! What do you think you're doing, apparating off of Hogwarts property?" The boy leveled his... stick with Nico, and said boy simply dropped his leather sheath onto the floor, created a makeshift chair of the compartment's accumulated shadows, and stretched across it carelessly.

Might as well start off in style, Nico thought.  
> <p>


	2. The Interrogation of a sort

In the office of Albus Dumbledore, esteemed headmaster of Hogwarts, said person reclined easily in his office chair, sucking on a lemon drop. Albus was not often of the anxious type. He had recieved word (quite extensive, at that) that his friend, Chiron, overseer of the realm of Camp Half-Blood, was prepared to dispatch a demigod to... assist with the situation against the Dark Lord. Albus, not usually stubborn, insisted that a single demigod would be a foolhardy move on Chiron's part, but the elderly centaur would have none of it.  
>Twiddling his thumbs wearily, he rifted through a pile of paperwork accredited towards the oncoming half-blood.<br>The headmaster skimmed his eyes hungrily across the student form. Nico di Angelo, he mused before resuming his search. The headmaster's dilemma was, however, interrupted as an unseen force drifted through the air duct and into the headmaster's office.  
>The force hummed with power as it made its way across the room and straight in front of the elderly Albus.<br>"Now, what in the blazes!..." was out of Dumbledore's mouth as the force formed the shape of a man, handsome but cruel, merciless though kind, to stare darkly at Albus.  
>"Hello, Blessed of Hecate," the newly formed umbramancer growled as he smirked, unmoving at the pale wisp of a man.<br>"Hades!" The headmaster cried, before slumping to the floor, unconscious.

"Answer me!" Nico opened an eye lazily and wasn't shocked to find the sensible people in the compartment staring at him, though the bespectacled boy's expression held only vague signs of fear, in which doubt and anger seemed to take its place. His wand, still leveled directly at Nico's chest, was wavering, as if the kid's arm was trembling.

Sighing, Nico sat up quicker than anybody present would have thought possible. The ginger boy had stopped cowering under the table and had taken up the role of 'interrogating' Nico, who noticed this with a smirk on his face.

"Now, then! E-explain yourself!" Raising an eyebrow quirkily, Nico rose, rested his elbows on the compartment table, (which darn near gave the redheaded girl nearest him a fear-induced heart attack) and chuckled mirthlessly.

"Explain... what?" Nico squinted, but he was hiding a smile.

The ginger boy seemed lost for a moment, and Scar-face took up the 'interrogation'.

"I-if you're here from Malfoy, tell 'im to bugger off!" He attempted to look confident, and almost succeeded, but that was until Nico gave him a terrifying glare that was bested only by Hades, under which he shrank.

The blonde-headed girl with the dreamy, out-of-focus eyes seemed to notice the dilemma for the first time.

"Who is this?" Nico was surprised to notice that her voice was not interwoven with fear, as with the others. Hers was a dreary calm, and it didn't bother Nico, but it came darn close.

Before Scarface or Ginger could reply, Nico spoke. "Nico. di Angelo. What's it to you?"

The redheaded girl seemed to be on the verge of replying with what British might call a "witty comment" when blondie shook her head towards her and stared at her upside-down magazine.

"Well, Nico... uh... you a student here?" Bushy-hair changed the subject, and Nico turned to her. No use in lying, after all, and accepting his "mission" was for the best. In his years, he had learned that this was truly a better strategy.

Nico nodded slowly, and replied with, "Well, an exchange student from America, but I suppose." Bushy-hair seemed to be hellbent on filling his night with questions, but Ginger boy spoke up, glaring at Nico, though slightly less intense.

"Hold it, 'Mione. This guy could be a phoney." He turned to Nico, and he had the strong urge to laugh, which he resisted. Barely.

"A... a what, a phoney? What'd make you think that?" Nico turned, unexpressionless, towards the boy, whose eye twitched.

"Maybe 'cause you just illegally Apparated off of school grounds!" Nico raised a questioning eyebrow. Apparating. There was that word, again.

"Not to mention that wicked shadow stuff!" Scar-face broke in, his wand now at his knee.

"Don't worry about it." Nico snapped his fingers, and, manipulating the Mist, he spoke. "I never appeared randomly. What you saw was your imagination. I've been next to you the whole time." He snapped his fingers again, and the other residents of the compartment slumped down into their seats.

He picked up his leather sheath and his belongings from the ground. As he pulled open the compartment door, he thought better of it.

I could go for some sleep, he thought.

He closed the door back, and envisioned a dark, secluded corner of the train. With a running start, he shadow travelled...

But, not successfully.


End file.
